what are you reading now?
jenks
thread death
Get over to the Dickens thread and give us your thoughts.
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
Most of the way through Monolithic Undertow:
blackwells.co.uk
Dunno, it's enjoyable but a) once it gets past the introduction it turns into a bit of an annotated discography - "then they recorded this album which was a bit slower and heavier, then the original guitarist left and they recorded this album which was more electronic" without any really meaningful comparative analysis or overarching narrative and b) a lot of it feels like it's less about drone and more about a bunch of vague strands of kinda thematically related sounds plus a few more things that the author just happens to be into. I mean, you can write a good book that way if you lean into it - David Toop does it pretty well, I think - but there does come a point where you find yourself wondering what the fuck a potted history of Black Flag is supposed to tell you about drones?
So yeah, not a waste of time, I now know more about eg Dream Syndicate and Amon Duul II and early doom metal than I used to and I think I'm a better person because of that, but I also think there's a really good book still to be written that actually goes deeply into how drones actually function musically and culturally, because this isn't it.
Also on a personal note I'm low-key vexed by the fact that there's this Cambridge-based writer writing a book about drones and drone-adjacent music but I'd never come across him in connection with any of the people I know who put on drone and drone-adjacent music in Cambridge, never seen him at any gigs or repping them on social media or any of that stuff.
Monolithic Undertow
'Monolithic Undertow' alights a crooked path across musical, religious and subcultural frontiers. It traces the line from ancient traditions to the modern under
blackwells.co.uk
Dunno, it's enjoyable but a) once it gets past the introduction it turns into a bit of an annotated discography - "then they recorded this album which was a bit slower and heavier, then the original guitarist left and they recorded this album which was more electronic" without any really meaningful comparative analysis or overarching narrative and b) a lot of it feels like it's less about drone and more about a bunch of vague strands of kinda thematically related sounds plus a few more things that the author just happens to be into. I mean, you can write a good book that way if you lean into it - David Toop does it pretty well, I think - but there does come a point where you find yourself wondering what the fuck a potted history of Black Flag is supposed to tell you about drones?
So yeah, not a waste of time, I now know more about eg Dream Syndicate and Amon Duul II and early doom metal than I used to and I think I'm a better person because of that, but I also think there's a really good book still to be written that actually goes deeply into how drones actually function musically and culturally, because this isn't it.
Also on a personal note I'm low-key vexed by the fact that there's this Cambridge-based writer writing a book about drones and drone-adjacent music but I'd never come across him in connection with any of the people I know who put on drone and drone-adjacent music in Cambridge, never seen him at any gigs or repping them on social media or any of that stuff.
woops
is not like other people
alas if only the world made that sort of sense
mixed_biscuits
_________________________
It's actually a bad habit carried over from chewing on my bedding.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Do you know that joke when you say to someone something like "I've just got some updog" and then they say "What's updog?" and then you make a reply that helps them understand that you tricked them into asking how you are. Hilarious... anyway, dunno why I thought of that but I'm just about to start on this book called The Centaur, I've read some of his stuff but, I tihink/hope not this one, guess I'll find out in a few minutes, wish me luck.
woops
is not like other people
I'm about 2/3 of the way through yet another 600 page biography, Wittgenstein this time, i usually do one or two in wintertime. didn't realise he was such a god botherer. very antisocial man, don't think being constantly praised as the greatest genius alive was good for him
jenks
thread death
Really enjoying Unwords by Andrew Gallix - it's 600 pages of his reviews over the past twenty years. Fortunately he is a very amiable companion and the kind of things he's reviewing are contemporary French lit with a smattering of theory - he's very good at drawing connection across texts and wears his learning very lightly. His main hero seems to be Blanchot (the book has been so persuasive that i have ordered a Blanchot reader from abebboks) I think it would appeal to a number of people on here - most of the reviews appeared on 3:AM magazine which he also runs. Extract here from London magazine: https://thelondonmagazine.org/essay-the-draft-of-the-medusa-by-andrew-gallix/
woops
is not like other people
Just recently read a book called Why I Have Not Written Any of my Books by Marcel Bénabou, an Oulipo guy, which fits into a genre I might have only imagined called literature of no. which is writing about not writing. Not the Becket no to existence but withdrawal from the act of writing. another I've mentioned on here is Bartleby & co. by Enrique Vila-Matas. I have a feeling Blanchot had something to say on the topic but don't know which are the relevant texts.
nb i went back through this message and put in all the capitals properly cos talking to @jenks
nb i went back through this message and put in all the capitals properly cos talking to @jenks
woops
is not like other people
though obviously there are parallels.
entertainment
Well-known member
Bresson's notebooks. Pretty good. Has these great out of context lines like "The ejaculatory force of the eye."
jenks
thread death
This would fit very much into Gallix’s key interests. He mentions Bartlett &Co a few times and obviously Oulipo gets various references. I’ll check Benabou.
woops
is not like other people
here is a line from the wittgenstein book. just after he buys a radio for his mate in about 1948
"it is so characteristic that, just when the mechanics of reproduction are so vastly improved, there are fewer and fewer people who know how the music should be played"
he was alive too early for dissensus
"it is so characteristic that, just when the mechanics of reproduction are so vastly improved, there are fewer and fewer people who know how the music should be played"
he was alive too early for dissensus
other_life
bioconfused
negative dialectics.. last third is WAY harder to read than the first two thirds; first read not taking any notes
mixed_biscuits
_________________________
shakahislop
Well-known member
halfway through leaving the atocha station, which i thought i'd read after hanging out in boring madrid. i think i'd put ben lerner up there with rachel cusk in the autofiction charts after reading this one. there's a certain accuracy about human beings in it i think. found it boring and offputting at first but in the end the honesty of it really elevates it
jenks
thread death
stuff I’ve read over the last six weeks, some already discussed on here. Be interested if anyone else has read Lynch - Booker winner, Irish, dystopian- I’m kind of ambivalent about it. Recognise that there’s good stuff in there but also feel manipulated by it at the same time.
Attachments
jenks
thread death
You’re not alone in that view. I felt like it was always reaching for some profound statement but couldn’t pull it off. The flights of purple prose amidst that wearing present tense style felt forced. I can already see the film/tv version of it.